Atlantic Creole

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Atlantic Creole is a term used to describe some early slaves during the European colonization of the Americas. These slaves had cultural roots in Africa, and Europe and sometimes the Caribbean. They were of mixed race, at first mostly with a European father and African mother. Some lived and worked in Europe or the Caribbean before coming (or being transported) to North America. Examples included John Punch and Emanuel Driggus (possibly derived from Rodriguez).^[1]

There was an emergence in the Chesapeake Bay region in the 17th century of what historian Ira Berlin (1998) called "Atlantic Creoles". He identified such people arising first on the west coast of Africa and of mixed parentage, born where European and African peoples came together - at trading ports, for instance. They grew up in multilingual environments and often worked as go-betweens for Africans and Europeans, or sailors, merchants and traders. Later some traveled to the Caribbean, North America, or Europe.^[2]

Atlantic creoles were among the charter generation in the Chesapeake Colony. Through the first 50 years of settlement, lines were fluid between black and white workers; often both were indentured servants, and slaves were less set apart than they were later.^[3] Many relationships grew between white women and black men. The new generation of creoles were the children of freed slaves and indentured servants of European, West African, and Native American ancestry (and not just North American, but also Caribbean, Central and South American Indian: see Forbes (1993)) who were born in the colonies. When the mothers were white, as was often the case, the children were considered free. These families with white mothers and African or African American fathers were the origins of most of the free people of color during the colonial period.^[4]

Some of these "Atlantic Creoles" were culturally what today might be called "Latino", bearing names such as Chavez, Rodriguez, and Francisco. Many of them intermarried with their English neighbors, adopted English surnames, became property owners and farmers, and owned slaves. The families became well-established, with numerous descendants by the time of the American Revolution.

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